Ch. 7 First Two Years: Psychosocial

Smiling and Laughing

• evoked by a human face at about 6 weeks

• preterm babies smile later and is the result of maturation

• laughter builds over the first months

2 months

• smiles when you talk or smile

• looks at face

• calms when spoken to or picked up

4 months

• chuckles but not full laugh

• smiles on own to get your attention

6 months

• knows familiar people

• looks at self in mirror

• laughs

9 months

• shy, clingy, fearful around strangers

• shows facial expressions of happy, sad, angry, surprised

• reacts when you leave

• smiles or laughs when you play peek-a-boo

12 months

• play games like pat a cake

15 months

• copies other children while playing

• claps when excited

• hugs stuffed doll

• shows affection

18 months

• moves away from you

• looks to make sure you are close by

• points to show you something

• puts hands out for you to wash them

• helps you dress by pushing arm through sleeve

24 months

• notices when others are hurt or upset

• looks at your face to see how to react in a new situation

Anger and Sadness

• notable at 6 months and triggered by frustration

• anger is healthy response to frustration

• sadness appears in the first months

Reflexive fear

• present at birth and in very young infants

• afraid of sudden loud noises

Fear in response to something specific

• starts at about 6 months

• grows stronger by age 1-2

Separation anxiety

• clinging and crying when a familiar caregiver is about to leave

• some is normal at age 1, intensifies by age 2, and then usually subsides

Stranger wariness

• fear of unfamiliar people, especially when they move too close, too quickly

Self-awareness

• the realization that one’s body, mind, and activities are distinct from those of other people

• occurs between 15 and 24 months

• developmental accomplishment

Temperament

• biologically based core of individual differences in style of approach and response to the environment that is stable across time and situations

• beings with genes and prenatal determinants, the early manifestation of epigenetic

Temperament has three distinct traits

• effortful control (regulating attention and emotion, self-soothing)

• negative mood (fearful, angry, unhappy)

• exuberance (active, social, surgent)

Synchrony

• a mutual exchange with split-second timing

• mutual exchange between parent and child

• attunement to each other

• can include social games

• responding to caregiver

  • if they open their eyes wide, raise their eyebrows, blink their eyes

• aids in cognition

Attachment

• bond between one person and another, measured by their responses to each other

• influences relationships throughout life

• universal across all cultures

• at age 1: attachment is physical for the child; reach for parent’s hand or leg

Secure attachment more likely if

• caregiver is usually sensitive and responsive to the infants needs

• infant-caregiver relationship is high in synchrony

• infants temperament is easy

• caregivers are not stressed about income, other children, or marriage/partnership

• caregivers have a working model of secure attachment to their own parents

Secure attachment

• comfortable and confident

• parent serves as a reliable base for infant to explore and return back

• parent provides assurance

Research shows that secure attachment is more likely if

• infant temperament is easy

• parents not stressed

• parents had secure attachment in their childhoods

• parent sensitive to child’s needs

Insecure attachment more likely if

• caregiving parent mistreats the child

• caregiver has a psychological disorder

• caregiver is highly stressed about income, other children, or their marriage

• caregivers are intrusive and controlling

• caregivers have alcohol use disorder

• child temperament is difficult

• temperament is slow to warm up 

Insecure-avoidant attachment

• play independently without seeking contact

• avoids connection with caregiver

• infant seems not to care about caregiver being present, or leaving, or returning

Insecure-avoidant attachment more likely if

• parents stressed (financial, other children, marriage)

• parents intrusive or controlling

• father with alcoholism

• infant temperament slow to warm up

Insecure-Resistant/Ambivalent Attachment

• opposite of insecure-avoidant

• infants are angry

• infants cling when they are left

Insecure-Resistant/Ambivalent Attachment more likely if

• children have difficult temperaments

• mothers who are depressed

Disorganized Attachment

• no consistent strategy

• sometimes they avoid, sometimes they resist in an unorganized pattern

• kiss parent and hit parent

• staring blankly and intense crying

• injure self and freeze

• most worrisome type

Disorganized attachment likely if

• mother with paranoia

• mother with alcoholism

• high parental stress

Chart of developing attachment

• 50-70% are secure

  • children are able to separate from caregiver but prefer caregiver to strangers

  • later in life they tend to have supportive relationships and positive self-concept

• 10-20% are avoidant

  • children avoid caregiver

  • later in life they tend to be aloof in personal relationships, loners who are lonely

• 10-20% are ambivalent

  • children appear upset and worried when separated from caregiver and may hit or cling

  • later in life, relationships may be angry, stormy, unpredictable. few long term friendships

• 5-10% are disorganized

  • children appear angry, confused, erratic, or fearful

  • later in life they can demonstrate odd behavior -including sudden emotions

  • at risk for serious psychological disorders

Continuum of Attachment

• avoidance and anxiety occur at a continuum

Daycare

• very young children usually benefit from high-quality allocate

Home care

• doing it exclusively can be harmful